Trashing Valentine’s Day Can Save the World
Trash is in the air. Is that not how the saying goes?
Considering the current state of our planet, I petition this to be the official statement surrounding the oh so consumerist holiday that is Valentine’s Day.
You may wonder why I am trashing Valentine’s Day, especially considering my namesake. Well, I will tell you, dear readers. I am not only writing in solidarity with all of the singles and the communists out there, but in solidarity with the planet.
7% of breakups happen on or close to Valentine’s Day. The common factor in all of these splits is, of course, gift giving.
Couples break it off before the holiday in order to avoid gift-giving. If not, trouble ensues when one is unhappy with the gift that their significant other has given them…
Enough of all of this couple stuff; let’s get into my reason for writing this article: the environment.
Flowers wrapped in plastic, chocolate boxes, and other knick-knacks exchanged on Valentine’s day are bound to end up in landfills, thereby perpetuating the slow death of our planet.
Valentine’s Day has become insanely consumeristic; one must show their affection, not in possessions, but in the goodness of their actions. We should not show our love for someone on a single day out of the year, but on every day.
However, gift giving, and expensive gift giving at that, has become the norm, and some will not settle for anything less.
We must change our perception of Valentine’s Day; gifts are old news. Instead, we should let our presence be the presents. It’s free, it’s ecological, and it’s a lot more valuable than anything money can buy.
By Valentina Tsilimidos
